'So Clean' Summary - OUCA401

This extract looks at how advertising, and Lever, targeted women as a consumer at first and through logical arguments, offered them a solution. For example, if you wanted to be less tired or worn down by housework then you should buy Sunlight soap. They targeted the need of the woman to please the man at this point, by relieving them from housework, it would improve aspects of their life, and ultimately their love life by providing domestic advise Lever's advertising targeted the female, more specifically, the mother - the maternal bond triggers the desire to ensure that their daughter were happy and had the best start as a new housewife. It then developed into removing the innocence of the housewife and posing women as the "sensual classical goddess" giving them a new confidence and power form. The adverts played on relevant current affairs. Orwell made a statement of how bourgeois prejudice created a divide and stigma of the working class. This caused cleanliness to be seen as a luxury and ultimately a trend. Advertising then took this opportunity to make good hygiene affordable across all classes, for example Listerine proposes the idea that of your breath does not smell good then it prevents you from getting married. This also gave a fear factor, thus creating a new social demand. Lever aided the creation of the admass culture which was heavily criticised due to eventual impact of mass production on the quality of the end product. This created competition within the product market and the need for effective advertising which would make for a desired product. Lever states that honesty is a cardinal principle and part of survival in the advertising worlds.